Monday, August 07, 2006

The fucked up bus driver

The fucked up bus driver is back. When I first arrived in Australia, I met a few. There are really, really nice bus drivers too, but there are black sheeps among them. Today I took a bus using a concession 10-trip saver ticket, which is something like our EZ-Link card for students. The bus driver stopped and asked me where I was going. After I told him my destination, this was what happened:

The fucker: $2.20Me (showed him my card): I'm using this.The fucker (pointed to a sign that said you had to show the driver your concession pass): Can you read that?I read it and proceeded to take out my concession card The fucker: No, no, no! $2.20.

It was amazing. Usually bus drivers do not check your concession pass. Under the conditions for travelling on the bus, they do have the right. But in practice, they seldom check, and if they do, they would let you take it out and show it to them after which they would be ok. This fucker however, insisted that I paid him the adult fare for travelling. Fucker right?

In case you thought I was biased, a local spoke to me on the bus.

Her: That was nasty! I have never met a bus driver like that! Usually, you show your pass to them when they ask for it!Me: Yeah, I know! Terrible!!!

I paid $2.20 and for what? For a fucker who jammed the brakes even though you could see it was red light from 100m away; for a fucker who sped down the road and jammed the brakes again at the bus stop. How lovely. If I wasn't so shocked at his amazing service, I would have alighted from the bus right at the start, without paying him his miserable $2.20. "Can you read that?" What do you think? Do you stop and read microscopic words when you board the bus, holding everyone back? Efficiency is a word lost on him.